Experimenting multiple approaches for teaching meta-modeling >>Teaching with software tools << Presented at https://www.jamk.fi/en/Event-Calendar/the-global-faculty-colloquium/global-faculty-research-colloquium/

1. Experimenting multiple approaches
for teaching meta-modeling
>>Teaching with software tools <<
The Global Faculty Research Colloquium, 2nd edition
Saïd Assar, Ph.D, HDR
Associate professor in Information Systems
Institut Mines-Télécom Business School
(ex- Telecom École de Management)

2. About my institution
2
Telecom Sud Paris
Institut Mines-Télécom: 13 leading schools in industrial and
ICT engineering and in management
Telecom Paristech
IMT Atlantique
Institut Mines Telecom
Business School

3. Working with the university
3
 Since 1999, long-term research collaboration with CRI at
Paris 1 Sorbonne

4. AGENDA
I. Introduction
II. About modeling in design
III. Meta-modeling
IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling
V. Conclusion

5. About the importance of pedagogy …
• Teaching mathematics …
• The impact of a teacher
5

6. I. Introduction
• Frequent pedagogical issues
– Linking theory to practice
– Making theory concrete
– Showing the utility of theory
6
“Theory” as
conceptual, abstract
knowledge

7. I. Introduction (cont’d)
• Teaching context
– Information Systems engineering
– Design methods
– Data modeling
– Process modeling
– Meta-modeling
7

8. II. About modeling in design 8
Models are essential artifacts in engineering
 To communicate
 To plan and organize
 To understand, correct, maintain and evolve
 They can describe existing or future objects and situations
 Models to analyze existing artifacts
 Models to design and build artifacts
Required competences for
management students :
 reading and understanding a
model

9. II. About modeling in design 9
• Specificity of models in IS …
Conventional design
IT artifact design

10. III. Meta-modeling
• Meta-models are “generic” models, i.e.,
category of models
• Simple example : a trans-national car
tracking system
– A specific “car plate model” for each country
– All car plate models share certain characteristics
• How to represent the knowledge about these
set of data?
10
1

11. III. Meta-modeling 11
• Another example : family of development
methods
– A specific “development method” for each
category of projects
– All development models share certain
characteristics
• How to represent the knowledge about
these set of data?
Method M1 for simple projects
S1
S2
S3
SN
…
Method M2 for
large projects
L1
L2
L3
LM
…
Agile method M3 for
risky projects
G1
G2
G3
GK
…

12. III. Meta-modeling
• Issues in teaching meta-modeling
– Abstract concept
– Difficult to operationalize
– Recurring questions
• How can a meta-model be also a model?
• What is a meta-model for?
• Software tools based approach
– To illustrate multiple levels of instantiation
– To show concrete applications
12

13. IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling
• ConceptBase
– A deductive database supporting object-centered TELOS
modeling language
– Result from research project DAIDA (J. Mylopoulos, M. Jarke
et al. - 1990')
– Targeted towards Model Engineering
– Continued as an open source project (M. A. Jeusfled)
13

14. IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling 14
• Multiple levels of instantiation with CB
 Excellent feedback
 Instantiation made concrete
… what for ?

15. IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling
1
• MetaEdit
 A software tool for met-model creation and tool customisation
 Result of research project at Jyväskylä (K. Lyytinen, M. Rossi, S. Kelly et al. - 1990')
 Actually commercialized by MetaCASE
 Targeted towards Domain Specific Modeling

16. IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling
1
• Model definition with MetaEdit
Meta-model definition
Generate
(Executable)
code
Domain Specific Model
creation

17. IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling
10:39
Creation of a customized editor with MetaEdit
1. Meta-model definition

18. IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling
10:39
Creation of a customized editor with MetaEdit
2. Domain Specific Model creation with customized editor

19. IV. Tools for teaching meta-modeling
10:39
Creation of a customized editor with MetaEdit
2. Domain Specific Model creation with customized editor

20. V. Conclusion
• Software tools based teaching
• Can be difficult to implement
– Necessity to learn the tool first …
– Learning the tool vs. learning the concepts …
– Software maintenance and evolution issues …
• Research oriented open source tools (e.g.
ConceptBase) versus Business oriented tools
(e.g. MetaCase, SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, etc.)
20

21. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !Any comments?
Homepage
http://fr.linkedin.com/pub/sa%C3%AFd-assar/4/68a/66a
http://fr.slideshare.net/SaidAssar/
https://twitter.com/Said_Assar/
http://www-public.tem-tsp.eu/~assar/